Job Spotlight with Rodney McQueen, a supply chain technician

Rodney McQueen doesn't interact personally with any patients at Midtown Medical Center in Columbus. But he sees his job at the Columbus Regional Health hospital as a critical cog in the health-care engine.

That's because as a supply chain technician, McQueen, along with fellow staffers in his department, are tasked with making certain that the proper medical supplies and materials are ordered and delivered on time for care and treatment of patients.

The Phenix City resident, 38, has gotten pretty good at keeping the wheels turning and the supplies flowing into the hospital for use by doctors, nurses and other clinical professionals. In fact, he recently received Columbus Regional's annual ACE-IT Award, which recognizes those who show outstanding "attitude, commitment, enthusiasm, innovation and teamwork" on a daily basis.

The Ledger-Enquirer visited with McQueen recently at Midtown Medical Center. He discussed his supply technician job, which he has held about seven years, and why he never takes it for granted when it comes to patient care.

Supply chain technician is a growing career field, with the online job site SimplyHired listing an average annual salary of $35,000.

This interview has been edited a bit for length and clarity.

How did you come to this moment in your career?

I actually started off warehousing. I've tried different things in life; like I worked at a brick plant, and I worked fast food in high school. But I've just always liked warehousing. My mother and my grandmother both worked in hospitals. My grandfather actually laid the tile at Grady Memorial up in Atlanta. So I guess hospitals are in our blood. (laughs)

I was working at the Walmart distribution center in Opelika and I enjoyed it. But it was one of those things where I just took a self evaluation and realized I couldn't see myself doing that for a long period of time. I then put in some applications and got hired here and haven't looked back.

You started here?

Not here at the Medical Center. I got hired at Northside (Hospital) as a temp and they enjoyed the work I did and hired me on permanently, and then they moved me to what was formerly known as Doctors Hospital.

What do you like about your job?

I like the balance of mental and physical work. It's a nice balance. Every day you're not just physically worn out. You have to use your mind and your body. It's a good, healthy mix for me.

I also like the customer service that's involved with it. My grandparents, just like we all will probably at some point, relied on health care as they got up in age. I was taking them to doctor's appointments and I saw the difference that health-care professionals can make as far as not necessarily in the results, but how (patients) feel about their situation. I've been to great hospitals and I've been to not so great hospitals. It's just that I like what I do and I like the health-care professionals here.

Your job, at its essence, is to make certain the nurses and doctors and others always have the materials they need to care for and treat people?

Absolutely.

What types of materials do you supply them with?

A little bit of everything. If you name it, we probably handle it. (But) not food. Dietary handles all of the food. EVS (environmental services) handles all of your trash and liners and everything it takes to clean a room. Your band-aids, your gauze, your needles, your syringes, we take care of all of those medical items.

You work with a third party company that supplies the hospital?

Absolutely. Atlanta is actually the main logistical hub where they pull the orders and send it down here to us. What we do is inventory and generate the orders that they pull. Then those orders get delivered down here and we take those (materials) up to the hospital floors.

How many people are on your crew?

There are six techs and two receiving clerks.

Is there any down time at all or are you always on the go?

There's always something to do to be productive, because if you're not taking something up to a floor, you're researching why something might not have come in or why you have too much of something. And with the medical field in general, there's always cost-saving opportunities. So we might switch out this item for that item. There's always something you have to do to kind of stay up on things.

What's a typical day like for you?

A typical day, I arrive here about 6:30 (in the morning). I take all of my pallets up to the floors to my departments that I'm responsible for and break it down and stock all of the rooms that we keep the medical supplies in.

After that, I do an inventory to make sure they sent everything that we were supposed to get. If there is anything off, I determine if the nursing staff is maybe using a little bit more than they used to and if I need to adjust that.

Then I come back downstairs and anything that was off (in the inventory process), I'll research it. I might have to call a vendor to see when a back order is going to be ready. After that, I'll call and check our OREC, or outstanding receiving. All things don't come out of Atlanta, just the majority of things. The things that we can't buy in bulk, we have to buy them separately.

What's an example of that?

The pic line (peripherally inserted central catheter) kits that we use. They're special, they're unique, they're customized just for this facility. Something like that would come in through UPS or FedEx ... Getting back to my OREC, if something hasn't shipped here yet, I call and find out the (estimated time of arrival). It might be on back order or it might be a partial order. I find out the reason it hasn't reached us yet.

Are there sometimes hiccups in the supply pipeline?

Oh, yeah. I wish it was all rainbow and candy and stuff. But you're going to have issues. Me personally, that's what I enjoy about my job. That's where the mental part comes in, as far as coming up with a solution for an issue. I might not be able to get this particular needle from this particular vendor, but the clinical resource manager will find a capable substitute and it gets approved and we order that and get it in here.

Do ever just run down to Walgreens and grab something?

If that's what it takes. It doesn't happen often, but it has happened before. Because at the end of the day, I'm sure that patient could care less where we bought it as long as it's quality and the nurses and doctors feel comfortable that they can get the results that they want from it.

How many different types of items come through here at any given time?

There are thousands of items. Certain doctors like certain items, so you want to have what makes them comfortable so they can do their job.

When do you wrap up your day?

Anywhere around 3 or 3:30 p.m., we wrap up and call it a day.

What's the most challenging part of your job?

The toughest part about my job, I would say, is just communication. I don't come from a clinical background. When I started seven years ago, a needle was a needle. I didn't know that there was a needle and a syringe. So just learning from the clinical staff exactly what they want and being able to meet their needs is the toughest part because you've got to be able to understand those professionals. They're under a lot of stress, and they understand that we want the best for them and they want the best for us. But it's just about finding that middle ground where we're both speaking the same language.

What's the most rewarding aspect of your job?

Honestly, the most rewarding thing that I get out of it personally is knowing that the patients are alright. It's knowing if one of my family members or somebody I cared about, if they're on the fourth floor, that they're alright, that the nurse or doctor has everything at their disposal to do the right thing for the patient.

That's rewarding. I can't really explain to you the feeling that I get knowing that, hey, if you're at the Medical Center or at Northside, I know that you will have what you need to take care of everything.

Does everyone on your staff have the same outlook as you?

I honestly feel like everybody that I work with has the same mentality, the same goals, the same initiative. That's just how I feel. It's patient care -- without you being a nurse, without being a doctor, this is the closet way that we can come to providing it.

You mentioned the teamwork here. The wheels have to keep turning and you have to rely on each other?

Yes. It's critical with communication in the department, knowing when to ask for help, because everybody's proud and they feel like they're going to do the best job. Everybody strives to do that, but sometimes you may have to lean on somebody for some help.

I have a co-worker who works a different floor. Well, if a patient from that floor gets transferred to my floor, I might need her help in figuring out exactly what my floor needs to deal with that patient.

As I was alluding to earlier, each supply chain tech is like a quarterback. You're on the (patient) floor and everyone on the floor sees you and you represent the supply chain. But what they don't see is the offensive alignment, which are the two receiving clerks who make sure that the things that come in get keyed into the system and that you have them to take up to the floor. They don't see the offensive coordinator, who makes sure that the usage levels reflect the amount of items that we keep on a floor. And the head coach and assistant coach will be Brandon and Kyle, who make sure that we're being cost effective and we're doing what's right by the patients on that end.

So it's definitely teamwork. One man is definitely not an island in this department.

Finally, what qualities are needed to enter your supply chain field?

I would say the first thing you would need to do is just get a good logistical understanding, as far as learning how things go from A and B to C.

I think you just need a high school diploma to do this job. But you don't really find a lot of young people to do this job because it just takes a level of pride that comes with age. Some young people might have that. But you have to understand you serve a bigger purpose than to just throw this box over there and (think) I'm going home for the day.

And it's about a willingness to learn and willingness to adapt to change.

Anything else you would like to say?

I really appreciate everybody that I work with. I really do.

Bio

Name: Rodney McQueen

Age: 38

Hometown: Atlanta

Current residence: Phenix City

Education: 1995 graduate of Spencer High School

Previous jobs: Walmart distribution center for six years, Multifoods Specialty distribution for five years and various other jobs in between

Family: Girlfriend, Tawanda Tolbert, and four children -- Camron, 20, Cambria, 15, Rodney Jr., 14, and Madason, 9

Leisure time: Loves to play video games on Xbox One and enjoys watching sports

Of note: He lived in Germany while his father was stationed there in the U.S. Army

This story was originally published May 23, 2015 at 7:57 PM with the headline "Job Spotlight with Rodney McQueen, a supply chain technician."